Manchester United Fan View: Ibrahimovic finishes the job Cantona and Ferguson started

As Alex Ferguson has noted, “if ever there was one player, anywhere in the world, that was made for Manchester United, it was Cantona.” United can attribute ending their 26 year title drought to the signing of Cantona from Leeds in 1992.

The club went on to win four titles in the next five years and that is why Alex Ferguson penned Cantona a letter after his retirement to remind him of “how good a player you were for Manchester United and how grateful I am for the service you gave me. I will never forget that and I hope you won’t either.”

Cantona was a catalyst for a remarkable period in United’s history, a period that set Ferguson on his way to what he claimed his main objective as manager of the club:

“My greatest challenge is not what’s happening at the moment, my greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their f***ing perch. And you can print that.”

After the EFL Cup win, Manchester United now have 42 major trophies in the cabinet, to Liverpool’s 41. (The Club World Cup counts Liverpool fans – winning the Champions League to enter a competition where you play on the other side of the world, requiring you to withdraw from the FA Cup, is not minor.)

Thanks to a brace that included the winning goal – on a day when Mourinho got his tactics and team selection wrong – the victory had one man’s name all over it: Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The man who revels in winning wherever he goes is winning in England and while the club are still off the pace in the league, Ibrahimovic scored his 26th goal of the season, more than any other Premier League player.

On ‘The Premier League Show’ (BBC One) this week, an interview with Swansea manager Paul Clement unearthed a quintessentially Ibrahimovic story. Clement retold of how one day in training at Paris Saint-Germain, Ibrahimovic asked him about what Didier Drogba was like.

Clement began by stating that Drogba had some qualities and attributes that were similar to the big Swede and before he could finish, Ibrahimovic interrupted and said “no you have never worked with someone as good as me.”

To understand his enduring excellence, you have to factor in these indefatigable levels of self-confidence. Clement noted that it was “almost bordering on arrogance, but in a way that made you smile.” United fans are certainly smiling and they are now daring to think of the next piece of silverware.

When Cantona arrived from Leeds, United were floundering and struggling to score goals, having won only two of the previous 13 games, scoring nine goals in that time. There’s a comparison to be made with Ibrahimovic’s arrival to post Louis van Gaal Manchester United, a time when the club was in the midst of an identity crisis and not scoring enough goals.

Now shots are up, goals are up and generally, the style of play is on the up. Can Ibrahimovic prove to be the proverbial shot in the arm for a drifting club in the same way as Cantona? He doesn’t look like he is tiring of English football, that’s for sure.